Joe's 1/200 Hasegawa Boeing 737-400

Joe

Tony's 737 has captured my imagination; I had this 737 in the stash, so I'll join the Civilian Aircraft GB and boost the numbers. I should be able to complete it before the end of September.

It's Hasegawa's 1/200 Boeing 737-400, on eof many 1/200 airliners they produce. Looking at the instruction introduction it's an old kit, but has new-gen decals which look very nicely done. I think I'll finish it in all-white, not a fan of the scheme provided.

The box top:

Contents:

The intro:

It's no longer the 'largest member of the 737 family', that now belongs, I believe, to the 737-900/Max.

Joe

I made a start. The fuselage has upper and lower halves, meaning only the sides need to be blended, preserving the aerials. Hasegawa kindly provided a ballast for the wheels-down configuration (you can also pose this on a stand which is provided).

No detail will be lost on the sides, as decals make up the entry, cargo doors and windows!

It looks simple, certainly simpler than Tony's Airfix 1/144 kit, but not as simple as Rick's 747-8

Wossupwidee?

Great to have another one in this gb joe. It looks a nice kit and the nose weight is a nice touch ( thats something i forgot on mine ! I had to slot little pieces of lead strip through the windscreen aperture before i fixed the screen!!)

Joe

Tidied up the seams and sanded smooth. There were some weird wrinkles, probably relating to the ejector pins that were required to be cut out prior to attaching the halves.

The small plug that covers the hole if you wanted to use the stand is inserted and sanded smooth. Dry fits show a very tight and snug fit on all parts so far. Painting them is going to be the difficult part, particularly the landing gear which is molded with the doors attached.

Missing on these small kits is the APU exhaust. I drilled the exhaust hole out, and will shape it to match from my photo below.

Joe

For 'Boeing Grey' (seems to be an argument as to exactly what colour shade this is online), I took a punt on light aircraft grey, followed by a darker grey to represent the Boeing Corogard which isn't so much a colour as a protective coating which changes colour from aircraft to aircraft.

Fuselage and engine cowls are now white, with grey pylons and interiors on the engines. The underside of the pylon will be painted gun metal to present the thin heat shield. The exhausts will be painted steel and weathered to a brownish burnt colour. Some are clean, others are dirty, I guess it depends on the time since a maintenance check. I'll paint eh lip at the rear of the engine black so it doesn't look like a solid white chunk.